A review by hardcover_hazel
This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

_"Burn before reading"_ 

This book follows two agents - Red and Blue. They are fighting each other in a war through time. The one belongs to Garden - agents more closely aligned with the duality of nature. The other belongs to Commandment - an unfeeling force of violence. They travel back and forth along braids and strands, slightly changing things or destroying whole worlds. 

_"She applies jeweled lights and odd sounds. She wrinkles time. The world cracks through the middle."_ 

It all starts with a taunting letter. Enemy to enemy. They teach other things. Red has never written letters before and Blue encourages her to learn about them, about seals and waxes. Red sends her a letter in a literal seal 😆 

_"I send you this letter on a falling star... I write in fire across the sky, a plummet to match your rise."_ 

They write in tea leaves, in the rings of trees, in the bubbles of water, the wings of dragonflies, the stings of bees. 

_"Bees gathering memories from eyes and tongue, honey libraries dropping knowledge from the comb."_ 

If you're looking for a book that will consume you, wrap you in it's layers, and taste words, this science fiction enemies-to-lovers romance is the one. 

"I'll be all the poets. I'll kill them all and take each one's place in turn, and every time love's written in all the strands, it will be to you." 

This book is love letter. It is poetry. 

_"P.S: I love writing in aftertaste."_